Here at Elder, we are known for our pride in our school. Normally, the all-boys schools get more of a reputation of having great school spirit rather than an all-girls school. Elder, St. Xavier, and LaSalle all have students who go crazy at football games, basketball games, and wherever else they have the opportunity to do so. Elder, of course, is known nationwide for school spirit, especially on Friday nights at “The Pit”.

Mother of Mercy High School is on the prowl of getting a great reputation when it comes to school spirit. A national contest took place during the summer in which schools from all over the country participated, showing off school spirit over social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

This contest was titled “Social Media Madness”, and began locally between just Cincinnati schools on June 3^rd, and nationally on July 16^th, with Mercy representing the Cincinnati area.

“The summer is usually a down time for schools but we wanted to make sure the Mercy spirit kept going over the summer months. We’ve developed fun and creative ways to keep not only students, but parents, alumnae and friends of Mercy interested in what’s going at the school.”, said Jenny Kroner Jackson (’00), who is a communications & PR specialist at Mercy (Source: BizJournals.com)

The reward Mercy received was $10,000 toward Mercy Beyond Borders, Mercy’s very own missionary association located in South Sudan.

Mercy senior Courtney Reder explained Mercy Beyond Borders, saying, “Mercy Beyond Borders is an organization for women and girls to help them (People in Sudan) get a proper education, promoting health, and supporting economic development. This was set up by the sisters of Mercy.”

Reder participated in Social Madness by following “MMHBobcats” on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. “I would like the posts that I found interesting and fun and share them with others if I thought they would enjoy them as well”.

“The competition wasn’t exactly to put Mother of Mercy’s name out there, but to put the name of Mercy Beyond Borders out there.”

Reder explained that there were “levels” to go through locally, in the district, the state, and then nationally for them to win the grand prize of $10,000. “Mercy has a lot of school spirit and we aren’t afraid to show it,” she said.

Courtney went on about how she knew people who didn’t go to Mercy got annoyed on social media about all of the posts the Mercy girls would put up, but persistence was key in this competition.

“We will always put 100% into everything we do, whether it be sports, cheering, or service activities, anything that supports the Mercy family,” concluded Reder.

Mercy senior Erin Pope had some insight on the subject.  “I retweeted, liked, and shared all things on Twitter and Facebook,” said Pope. “Ms. Jackson would engage us in questions about our favorite summer activities, how concerts went, where people were going on vacation, etc.”

Erin brought up the “Flat Bobcat”, which is a cutout of a picture of the Mercy Bobcat which the students would bring with them places and take pictures with throughout this competition.

“It really brought everyone together to win for a cause we are all very passionate about. I think we showed other schools how driven we are and what measures we are willing to go to to win,” said Pope.

Being an Elder student comes with the pride and the understanding that we have some of the strongest school spirit in the nation, but we, and many other schools, may have met our worthy counterpart;  the Mercy Bobcats.